Sunday
Indeed:
It's a pub, across the road from Camden Town tube station. But, unlike the people Perry had a chuckle about yesterday, their End is, I presume, a place rather than a time. End as in: here your journey stops, rather than now everything stops.
Looking the other way from the tube exit, I wondered if these guys were trying to tell us all something similar, about the likelihood that the world will not be ending any time soon:
I was in Camden to meet a Goddaughter, and the two of us then walked west along the Regents Canal. Recently, I watched a TV show about the revival of Britain's canals as desirable places to have fun on and to live next to, following their eclipse as the dominant mode of transport by the railways and their descent to wet slum status and dereliction. We saw plenty of evidence of this revival. In particular, we saw many, many canal boats, most at rest, many in motion.
The river boat we saw that the readers of this blog will probably approve of most strongly was the one called this:
Although, the boat name that I found the most intriguing was this:
Compass Rose was the ship that got sunk in Nicholas Monsarrat's novel about the war in the Atlantic, The Cruel Sea, which was then made into a very popular movie of the same name, starring Jack Hawkins. I don't believe that to be a coincidence.
We saw many other sights. I liked the floating restaurant, that was doing brisk business. I was intrigued that for long stretches of the canal, roads and railways near to it are at a significantly lower level, often spectacularly so (as at the point where the canal is crossed by two big elevated roads, one on top of the other, in the Paddington area) and quite a few houses and business buildings next to the canal had basements below canal level.
Later in the afternoon, I liked how a curve in the elevated M40 juts out over a curve the opposite way in the canal, but without them crossing, like this:
And we both enjoyed photo-ing the birds in the big bird cage designed by Princess Margaret's ex, which is right next to the canal. I did not know this.
By the time the sun was setting, we had reached Willesden, where I had further fun photoing the sunset through incomprehensible railway clutter. Click on the picture below if you'd like to see it bigger:
At which point we were both pretty tired, so we sat down in a Chinese and ate, and then went home. And I'm pretty tired now, so I will leave it at that.
I love London's canals, I grew up a stone's throw from the Grand Union. If four decades of computer programming hadn't left me with the inability to think in anything other than short, declarative sentences I'd like to write an SF novel based on the canals in a post apocalypse Britain.
Looking at that World's End photo, can't you just hear one of Del Boy's Victorian ancestors insisting on the largest possible window surround, against the architect's better judgement? "Look at those window pediments Rodney. That's class, that is."
Posted by Roue le Jour at May 23, 2011 05:13 AM
Worlds End is actually a pretty great pub. Little bit of a steampunky vibe inside :D
Posted by sconzey at May 23, 2011 10:08 AM
Compass Rose....ah. Yes.
The Great 19th-20th Century War of 1866-1989 (including its various armistice periods) was notable for the several astonishing and vast outpourings of tremendous literature and poetry that it caused. And not just in English: German writers also shone strangely bright. And others whose names escape me.
"The Cruel Sea" is one of the most important, grand, sensitive and tragic modern novels written in English. (Monsarrat came, also, from just down the road from where I write although that's nothing to do with anything.) It should be what we used to call a "Set Book" for O and A levels, but sadly it is not, not being regarded by GramscoStaliNazis as "politically correct".
Instead, poor tormented British teenagers are forced to spend up to TWO TERMS (sometimes longer" analysing "Of Mice And men", "To kill A Mockingbird" (not actually such a bad book), "Lord Of The Flies" (really terrible and negative) and some "poetry" in the exam boards' "anthologies" that is such pretentious and self-regarding tosh that it would make your flesh creep and crawl to read it - indeed some of it bordering dangerously on Ruling-Class-Intellectuopornography.
The poor saps are also not actively encouraged to _/read/_ widely among anything else whatever: it's no wonder they are put off it, can't craft essays without shedding blood and sweat (and even then the results are terribly disappointing), have very limited functional vocabulary, and can't wait to get to a screen or a phone. I think all this has been done to them deliberately, me. Nice photos, though.
Posted by David Davis at May 23, 2011 12:29 PM
Actually, having watched a programme last night about franchise street gang "MS13," I'm not sure Lord Of The,Flies is actually that unrealistic, depressing though that thought may be...
On the other hand, nice pictures. That one of the m40 bridge may become my wallpaper :-)
Posted by wh00ps at May 23, 2011 02:16 PM
How did you manage to take so many photos in London without getting pinched by the plastic plods?
Posted by John K at May 23, 2011 03:28 PM
Greta photos, suprised it wasn't raining when you took them and you actually had some day light.
Posted by soccer tips at May 24, 2011 02:07 PM
The Underworld, underneath the World's End is a great little music venue. The Missus does a lot of business with the guy that runs it.
Posted by Richard at May 28, 2011 05:21 PM
David Davis
The Cruel Sea is great - I was forced to read it at Dartmouth, so at least the RN is still remembering the lessons.
As for The Lord of the Flies it is not only negative but seriously misrepresents human nature. Historically in emergency situations, or when responsibility is thrust upon people far too young for it, people tend to act in a positive way. People are not the two steps from barbarism so often assumed in film and novels.
Posted by Richard at May 28, 2011 05:24 PM
